Marked by a Tyrant After Transmigrating

If one wished to find a place that was of vital importance to the original owner and held deep seated memories, it couldn’t be the prime minister’s mansion, but the……cold palace.

A full decade spanned between the time the original owner met Jin Wang to the time Jin Wang ascended to the throne.

In Jin Wang’s early childhood, his concubine mother was once in favor amongst others. However, the emperor was heartless, and his mother, falling prey to insidious schemes, soon fell out of favor and was banished to the cold palace, where she died of a serious illness.

The original owner and Jin Wang were thus left alone to depend upon each other to survive.

They lived in the cold palace for five years, and waited another five years before finally finding the opportunity to regain Jin Wang’s status as a prince and leave that palace.

“You’ve been distracted for some time now, what are you thinking about?” Jin Wang asked in a warm voice as he led Ye Shu slowly down the path in the backyard of the Ye Mansion.

Ye Shu snapped out of his thoughts. He looked up only to meet Jin Wang’s pair of handsome eyes.

He opened his mouth to speak, but suddenly came to a pause.

In that split second, he felt somewhat reluctant to tell Jin Wang his conclusion.

There was a kind of apprehension that emerged when it came to returning to a place he might once have called home. It was him who proposed to come here to search for answers, and it was also him who was afraid of finding out the truth.

Jin Wang stopped in his tracks as well. He raised his hand to brush the strands of hair scattered around Ye Shu’s temples behind his ears. “Is it because of the lack of clues that you are dispirited?”

Ye Shu looked down. “I……”

“Take things easy. You needn’t rush,” Jin Wang said. “Didn’t I mention that you don’t need to give me an answer so soon?”

He led Ye Shu onward.

Jin Wang said, “I intend, in due course of time, to make it possible to have this place refurbished.”

“Why?”

“A home for you outside the palace is necessary,” Jin Wang smiled. “Just in case I upset you again one day, coming here would be better than fleeing elsewhere.”

Ye Shu’s heart skipped a beat. He turned his head and said, “That’s not certain. I can still go look for Xiao Chang Yuan. I heard that his shop has already opened up and that business is going smoothly.”

Jin Wang frowned slightly.

Ye Shu was about to continue walking forward, when Jin Wang caught his wrist and drew him agilely into his embrace.

“Have I been too nice to you recently?” Jin Wang half pushed and half embraced Ye Shu against a tree on the roadside. His narrowed eyes appeared menacing. “Daring to mention another Qianjun in front of me, you sure have the guts.”

Having been spoiled by Jin Wang in recent days, Ye Shu became all the more emboldened, with not much fear of him. “Of course, I can even go to Huainan to see Xiao Huan, to the Great Yan to see Yu Yan, to uhmp—”

Jin Wang kissed that lawless mouth.

After a long time, he backed off a little, biting at Ye Shu’s lower lip. “Where else would you go?”

Ye Shu’s lips had become dark red. Savouring Bearing the pain, he remarked, “Are you a dog?”

“So many times you’ve called me names, can’t I live up to them for once?” Jin Wang licked at Ye Shu’s lips as if in anger. “You can’t go anywhere.”

“Where else in this world could I go?” Ye Shu laughed unhumorously. “Is there anywhere within the city walls of the capital that you can’t find out about? As for leaving the capital, with this brat around, I can’t even last an hour in a carriage, how can I go to those places?”

Jin Wang gazed into Ye Shu’s eyes and nodded. “Mhm, I know all about that.”

“Then why did you still—”

“I just wanted to hear you say it again.” A sly smile flashed in Jin Wang’s eyes. “That you have no other choice but to stay by my side.”

“……” Ye Shu looked away. “Childish.”

Jin Wang appeared flabbergasted. “Your ears are red?”

“They’re not!”

Jin Wang acted serious. “Your face too?”

“Jin Wang!”

Jin Wang puffed out a laugh.

Ye Shu was now truly embarrassed and tried to leave as soon as he pushed Jin Wang away.

Jin Wang smiled and went to pull him. “Hey, wait a—”

His voice came to a sudden stop.

The sound of a sharp blade breaking through the air was heard.

Jin Wang swiftly held Ye Shu tightly and turned around. A short arrow whipped through the snowy branches and a hair’s breadth away from their sides, sinking deep into the tree trunk.

Assassins.

“You’re okay, right?” The courtyard was dead still, and the assassins were hidden in the shadows. Jin Wang immediately looked down at Ye Shu. “Don’t be afraid, I’m here.”

Ye Shu, complexion pale, nodded.

Changlu’s monarch naturally would not have gone out alone, but the assassins had obviously come prepared. As numerous short arrows were being shot at the two of them, several personal guards leapt down from nowhere and blocked the arrows one by one.

One of the guards then knelt on his knees. “Your Majesty, there are many of them, please stay inside the house first.”

Jin Wang, “Alright.”

Several guards escorted the pair quickly in retreat towards the nearest house.

The rain of arrows on them had not yet ceased, and so no one noticed that in the darkness of the treetops that they were heading towards, a cold glowing arrow was silently aimed in their direction.

The arrow was precisely aimed straight towards Ye Shu’s unguarded coat.

Just a moment before the pair crossed the threshold, that short arrow was released!

In the next instant, Jin Wang stepped sideways to cover Ye Shu’s back.

Blood splattered out and spilled onto Ye Shu’s snow-white fox fur coat.

“Your Majesty!”

Footsteps upon footsteps and shout upon shout rang out in a chaotic mess. The assassin who had shot that arrow was soon taken down. More people came around and supported Jin Wang into the house. But Jin Wang’s hand was still holding Ye Shu tightly, who staggered a little and was also helped into the house.

They were in a small wooden house located in the backyard, in which everything had been cleared out, and there was not even something to sit on.

Jin Wang sat on the ground. The blood-stained arrow pierced his shoulder blade and blood pooled on the ground in front of them.

All the guards around the monarch were well-trained, and several of them hastened to stop the bleeding by pressing his acupuncture points. Jin Wang simply tilted his head, with his hand that had always held Ye Shu raised to cover his eyes. “Don’t look.”

He felt sick at the sight of blood so this should be awful for him to watch.

But Ye Shu took his hand and held it tightly in his palm.

Ye Shu’s hands were even colder than Jin Wang’s.

It suddenly occurred to him that this incident was also in the book.

As the New Year commenced, a party of malicious conspirators from within the court finally couldn’t hold back and sent assassins to assassinate the monarch.

However, in the book, Jin Wang was not at all wounded.

Blame it all on him.

If not for him being afraid of the slightest thing, him being lost in various conjectures, him coming here in search of some so-called truth, if not for his inability to perform martial arts, things wouldn’t have gotten so disrupted.

If only he hadn’t had to protect him……

“Don’t cry,” Jin Wang held his hand in his other hand. “I’m fine. It’s nothing at all.”

His consolation was not in the least convincing. His wound was so close to his vital organs that the guards did not even dare to pull out the arrow rashly. Had Jin Wang not had something of a foundation in martial arts, he would have passed out long ago.

If it had been farther……

“……How come you’re crying even more, crybaby,” Jin Wang’s complexion had turned pale from excessive blood loss. He raised the hand that was still able to move to wipe Ye Shu’s tears.

The scuffle outside had not yet ended, and many more people had gathered inside the house. Ye Shu turned his head to wipe his eyes and then asked in a low voice, “Does it hurt?”

“It doesn’t,” Jin Wang paused, then corrected himself, “Actually, it kinda does.”

Jin Wang’s complexion was getting worse and worse. He smiled with difficulty at Ye Shu. “If you kiss me on the lips, it won’t hurt anymore.”

Ye Shu smiled through his tears. “You……”

Jin Wang winced in pain as he aggravated the wound when he spoke.

He could only feel his strength depleting by the minute. His body was also growing cold. Jin Wang leaned against the wall and slowly closed his eyes.

Suddenly, a soft, cold sensation of touch landed on his lips.

Ye Shu kissed him.

Jin Wang, with his eyes closed slightly, smiled and held the back of Ye Shu’s head to deepen the kiss.

With the bitterness of tears and the faint taste of blood, the kiss was brief yet deep, and soon, Jin Wang’s hand fell weakly.

But Ye Shu still did not let go.

He placed another soft, sluggish kiss against Jin Wang’s lips and licked them.

Even though Jin Wang’s strength had been exhausted to the limit and his consciousness had become so groggy that it was difficult for him to respond, Ye Shu knew that Jin Wang could feel it.

The incident passed as quickly as it had come. The assassins outside were soon captured, but Jin Wang had to be taken back to the palace for immediate medical treatment as his wound was so close to his viral organs.

The guards helped Jin Wang into the carriage and Ye Shu carefully leaned him on his shoulder.

He was about to give the order for them to set off when one of the guards asked from outside the carriage, “My Lord, what should be done with the captured assassins?”

Ye Shu’s thoughts were all on Jin Wang. Without much thought, he said, “Lock them up first. Wait for His Majesty to recover before interrogating them.”

The guard’s expression appeared somewhat hesitant.

Ye Shu, “What is it?”

“These men just now……just now claimed to be,” The guard paused, then added truthfully, “claimed to be Minister Ye’s remaining confederates.”

“……”

Ye Shu subconsciously tilted his head to look at the man beside him.

Jin Wang, with lips pale and eyes closed. Who knew if he had heard it.

The Minister of the Left Ye Shu’s henchmen had been cleared out as early as when the investigation of his involvement in the rebellion was conducted.

This was an attempt to use him as a shield.

Or did the original owner really still have remaining confederates?

Ye Shu lowered his head and asked in a low voice, “Do you still believe in me?”

Jin Wang did not respond.

A short while later, he raised his hand and took a token out of his bosom and handed it to Ye Shu.

The token still had Jin Wang’s heat on it. Its white jade surface was stained with blood, making it look rather gruesome.

Ye Shu gripped the token hard. He laughed lightly and tilted his head to order.

“Take them back. I’ll interrogate them myself.”

A/N:

In theory, the truth will be known in the next chapter, and if not, in the following one.